Eyes of an Eagle a Novel of Gravity Controlled

by S. A. Gorden Неизвестный Автор

  Chapter 15

  Meeting

  “Mr. President. I think it is time for a meeting with Karpinen. He has known about our surveillance for months."

  “Okay. Why don't you meet at NASA headquarters? It would be reasonable that he will show up there. We can sneak you past the press easy enough."

  “I'm sorry sir but we did a full psychological review of Karpinen. Everyone agrees that it would be best to meet him on his own ground. We need his expertise and he knows it."

  “Can you make it out of Washington without being spotted by the press?"

  “I have worked out a plan. I will be going to Dulles where two planes will be waiting. One plane will go to Edwards and the other will go to Grand Forks. A car will meet the plane at Edwards taking my double to the Dryden Flight Center. Another car will meet me at Grand Forks and drive me to Karpinen's farm. To throw the press off I will return two days later by way of the Airbase in Duluth. The two planes will meet again at Wright Patterson and I will fly back to Washington."

  “Isn't that a little complex?"

  “We have more than the press to mislead. The Russians and everyone else in the world are still spying on us."

  “Okay but bring a couple of experts with you. I want nothing to go wrong. According to your reports,

  Dr. Jorge seems to have the best handle on Karpinen and Dr. Schmitt from Argon is the only scientist that I can understand."

  “I can make the arrangements."

  * * * *

  The three crows were back sitting on the power lines. Move-over had found a nice spot on the bookshelf and was watching me from the living room. A car pulled up with four men in it.

  “Tabby. They are here. It looks like three will be coming in. Any questions about the plan?"

  “Go soak your head. I'm ready. Make sure you are."

  I pulled open the door before they could knock. “Come in. Have a seat."

  “Thank you Mr. Karpinen. I am..."

  “No intros. Now just sit and get comfortable. Anyone want something to drink? It has been a long drive." “How do you know about the drive?"

  “Come on Mr. Riley. The nearest airport that will land a plane large enough to fly you from Washington and is also large enough not to attract undo attention is two hours away. And I bet you landed in either Minneapolis or Grand Forks, both of which are even farther."

  Schmitt asked for some coffee. I could tell Riley was not happy about it but there was nothing he could do. “Tabby, would you keep these gentlemen company while I make some coffee?” Tabby started in with small talk keeping them busy and off balanced. The coffee was soon finished. There wasn't a table near any of the men so they had to balance the cups and saucers on their laps while I passed out sugar and creamers. I felt it was time for my first move when Riley tentatively balanced the cup and saucer on the arm of his chair.

  “Mr. Riley. What have you found out about the alien?” Dr. Jorge must not have known about the creature because he spilled some coffee on his lap. The disturbance gave Riley a few extra minutes to plan an answer.

  “What alien?" “Come on Mr. Riley. How can we even start if you won't answer the simplest questions?"

  “I don't know what you are talking about."

  I switched to Dr. Jorge. “Doctor, what do you think? Mr. Riley here was caught in a lie and he insists on holding on to it. You see doctor ... A few months ago they found a body of an alien creature just down the road from here. And I am not talking about an alien who crossed the Canadian border. I am talking about a creature with a biological structure that was not formed on this planet.

  “Am I right Mr. Riley?"

  “Okay. You are right."

  “Finally. How do the genetics differ?"

  “No chromosomes but the creature did have DNA and RNA. Most of the gross features were surgically constructed. How did you know about it?"

  It was time to give them something. “Who do you think killed it? It came here wanting to eliminate me before the big demonstration. I objected to being killed most strenuously."

  Riley seemed to go into a state of shock as he tried to coordinate the new information. I let him sit and talked to Jorge about social dynamics. Tabby took on Schmitt with a discussion about our experiments. Riley broke into our talk, “Excuse me."

  “Yes."

  “Do you know why it tried to kill you?"

  “It is pretty obvious. The creature didn't want us to learn about gravity control at this time. Mr. Riley, you are the acting National Security Advisor. You need to do better than that."

  “Are they going to try to kill you again?"

  “That I don't know. My gut feeling is yes. A more important question for you is, ‘Are they going to try do something about the whole planet since the gravity cat is out of the bag, so to speak?'” At that Move-over decided to put in his own comment with a loud meow. Dr. Jorge again spilt his coffee but this time it was cold.

  “Why didn't you tell us right away?"

  “Would you have believed me? Besides I bet you are already putting up a space defense."

  “How do you know?"

  “Dr. Jorge should be able to explain. Everything you need to know is out there. The increased work at the Skunk Works, Edwards, Dryden, and so on. All of the changes over the last few months add up.” We finally got down to a give and take discussion.

  It was a warm late fall day so I went outside to grill some sausages for lunch. The nice thing about living in the country is that you can get the best farm products. These sausages came from a local processor. They were both very tasty and juicy. Hot juices burning the chin and splattering the face will keep the men off balance and telling more than they wanted to. The crows were still there. I fed the driver before bringing the rest of the sausages in.

  Tabby had Schmitt in an apron dicing onions and Jorge setting the table. Riley had been standing in a corner until Tabby shoved a pitcher into his hands and told him to pour the iced tea. When we sat down, the suits from Washington didn't look like suits anymore. Schmitt was still tearing from the onions. Jorge had two big coffee stains on his shirt and Riley just looked crumpled. Move-over, sensing an opportunity, jumped on Riley's lap and tried to take a bite out of his sausage.

  “Move-over. You know better. Come over here and I will give you a piece.” The purring started before he got down from the lap. “Be careful. It's hot."

  “Meowwwerow."

  After lunch, Tabby had them doing dishes. Riley was wiping.

  “Can we put some guards in your home?"

  “No. If the aliens do come back, the guards would be killed. Keep them where they are now. That way they will have a chance to survive."

  “But how can you handle it alone?"

  “You ever hear the military term, point man?"

  “No."

  “When a patrol goes out in enemy territory they send out a point man. He is the eyes of the patrol. He finds what is out there. A point man can't do his job if he is surrounded by the rest of the patrol. He has to be out in front or else both he and the patrol will not make it. I've been walking point for the last year.

  I can handle myself if that is all I have to look after."

  Riley looked at me, his face wide with shock. Slowly, he nodded and changed the topic.

  * * * *

  “Mr. President."

  “Yes Thomas."

  “Daniel Karpinen is smarter than we thought. He has known about what we were doing all along. He has been controlling us."

  “Damn. I hate being used. Do we have options?"

  “Not really, sir. In fact, he told us that we might just be facing either a raid by aliens trying to kill him or a full-scale attack.

  “We need to contact the Russians, Chinese, and our allies because if we are attacked we can't have a local war starting by mistake.

  “God. What have we come to, thinking of global conflict as a local war? How much time do we have?"

  “I don't know and I don't think Karpinen doe
s. But he did start direct talks with us. I think something has to start soon."

  “Call General Holcum and I want a meeting of the joint chiefs as soon as we can quietly arrange it. Oh yes. I want Holcum and Scott to go to the War College and have them start setting up scenarios for war games."

  “Tom, have you thought about what will happen if this is all a mistake?"

  “Yes. But what if it isn't?"

  Chapter 16

  Preparations

  “Captain Ree. When do you think you can place the remotes?"

  “Our long range sensors indicate that as long as we don't draw attention to our ships we can make the deliveries unnoticed. Which remotes do you want to send Commander?"

  “I would like to start with the 30 millimeter creepers. We can add the larger remotes after we get the first information back from the creepers."

  “I will send the high protector and the landing vehicle to near orbit on the planet as soon as the 30 millimeters are loaded. The landing vehicle will make a low pass over the site just before dawn planet time. The satellite that we are on will have set in the night sky by then and the lander should be virtually invisible to the inhabitants."

  Science specialist Uubee was able to lock on to thousands of electromagnetic sources. The computers were working on translating the signals into the User dialect but so far only patterns were being cataloged. It would take a section of known translation to find the key. Uubee had again begged Commander Zblot to send a team to obtain one of the remote sensing devices that the recordings talked about. A TV, a radio, even the object called a phone could be enough to provide the key to translating the electromagnetic signals.

  The members of the assault team were sitting in front of viewers linked to cameras on the high protector. Grup kept grunting and pointing to the large vehicles traveling on continent spanning pathways. Trreee's mouth would open and close whenever a new variety of flying object would appear. Ed soon stopped watching and started to worry. Nothing at first on the view screens bothered him. Everything seemed so normal, until ... Ed noticed the chaos. Large sections of the planet had few if any artificial vehicles while others had enormous pathways built just for vehicle use. It would be normal for the empty sections to be filled with the harvesting of food substances. But that did not seem the case on this planet. There were just large sections of the planet that were at a different technological level than the others. The climate was extreme. Temperatures easily varied from 100 degrees above the freezing point of water to 100 degrees below. Large expanses of water were interrupted by an assortment of landmasses. Thousands of kilometers of the landmass seemed to be ringed with volcanoes. Huge storms turned up the oceans. This was a planet of extremes.

  Ed said, “Boys. Look carefully at the planet. What does it remind you of?"

  After a long pause Grup replied, “By The Hell of the Lost of Debon! It looks like a military training planet. This place couldn't have been terra-formed could it?"

  “I looked at the original planet surveys. There was no indication of planet manipulation. It never occurred to me until I saw the actual planet that a whole population of intelligent life could evolve on a planet this extreme.

  “I need to talk to Commander Zblot at once. This place is going to be dangerous."

  It took four time cycles before the commander had time to talk to Ed.

  “Team Leader Ed, I understand your worry but don't you think that the Chameleon would have noted the similarity of the planet to a military base."

  “Sir. Only military planets have all of these extremes in one location. Infiltrators such as the Chameleon train on a planet, go to a command ship, and are debriefed while traveling to another planet. Military training planets are of two types. The first are basic training camps and the second are specialized training facilities. This is a basic training type planet. An example of most usable planet types can be found on one planet. Only those infiltrators that are assigned to military commands set foot on training planets. I checked the Chameleon's records. The Chameleon went straight from initial training into second and first contact infiltration."

  A large dark object sped through the night sky. The only noise was the rushing of the wind as the object cut through it. Over a lonely section of woods, doors on the object opened and thousands of 30-millimeter pellets fell free. A total of 5,832 pellets fell from the sky over 10 square kilometers of woods. 1,234 of the objects hit the earth and remained still. The 4,598 remaining objects unfolded tiny legs. 357 were unable to unfold all six of their legs. 238 of the objects crept away from the landing site in random directions. But 4,003 turned southeast for the 10 kilometer walk to the isolated farmhouse. The six tiny legs moved the 30-millimeter objects southeast using 1-millimeter steps.

  Things started to go wrong immediately for the 4,003 tiny remotes. 987 were washed away two hours into the trek when a spillway at a local beaver dam flooded an empty streambed. A small herd of frolicking deer tore though the marching machines leaving 456 crushed little bodies. When the full morning sun lighted the forest floor, the smaller creatures attacked the marching throng. A swallow would swoop down snatching a remote climbing a fallen tree. A raccoon sat for hours grabbing a creeping remote, pulling its legs off, washing it and trying to eat the metal tidbit. Squirrels would grab a remote and stack it in a hollow with the rest of their nuts.

  228 of the original 4,003 made it to the edge of the field next to the farmhouse after a full day of walking. 97 made it across the field. A car pulled in front of the farm crushing 20 creepers. Hurried steps accounted for 5 more. And then came the crows. The last small creeper climbed a tree next to the farmhouse. It anchored itself to the tree and raised the back of its shell making a perfect parabolic transmitting dish. The first image of the farmhouse made it to the Users ship before it was replaced by a large yellow slitted eye followed by a meow and a crunching of metal.

  Captain Ree said, “I think we will have to try tomorrow night with the 25-centimeter drones."

  * * * *

  Captain Sam McHenry loved the Air Guard. The Air Force was okay but with the Guard he flew civilian planes every day and was still able to take an F-16 for a joy ride at least once a week. The guard unit he was in, the 148th in Duluth, was one of the best. The 148th had a history of beating regular Air Force units in war games. To top it off since the 148th was part of the Air Force rapid deployment group to Europe; he had a chance for an all expense paid three-week vacation in Germany and England next year. McHenry just hoped he wouldn't be in a deployment to the Middle East. He had been in the Gulf before and didn't have any fond memories of the place.

  McHenry knew something big was up. The 148th was ordered to have two ready planes fueled, weapons loaded and pilots suited prepared for immediate take-off, twenty-four seven. The briefing that just finished had a story about Colombian drug dealers using stealth aircraft purchased from the Chinese based on an original Russian design being used for deliveries in Minnesota. But why was a squadron of F-22 Raptors just moved to Grand Forks? And why were they installing those super secret missiles, AIM-X12Cs, under the wings of his Falcon? The AIM-X12C was an intelligent missile with optical, radar, and heat sensors onboard and guidance feed from the F-16's radar or an AWACs. It was a huge

  missile that rivaled the AIM-54C Phoenix in size. All that firepower couldn't be for some two-bit Colombians. And why the special heads up for that private experimental aircraft, YS1? Something definitely wasn't kosher.

  Well at least he would be able to do some flying against the F-22s. The squadron was scheduled to start a training rotation with the F-22 squadron this week. Most of the dogfights were to take place over Lake Superior. The Big Lake was a deceptive hunting ground, which he had used to his advantage in past war games with other fighter groups.

  The engineers from Sandia Labs finished the final checklist on the six-meter rail gun they constructed at the White Sands Missile range. The part of the installation that took the longest was getting the huge power
supply required for charging the rail's capacitors to work without blowing transformers or relays. The rail gun project had languished since the late 1980s. It had been part of Regan's Star Wars plans until it became obvious to even Congress that no one had the money to construct the system. The orders to finish the gun and install it a White Sands had surprised everyone at Sandia. The project had never completely stopped over the years. NASA had kept a minimum research funding on the project with an eye towards using a rail gun to shoot micro satellites into orbit. The Sandia engineers were surprised that nearly immediately the Air Force personal manning the gun started test firing at a target down range.

  Two Boeing 747s started flying between the Dryden Flight Center in California and the Marshall Center in Huntsville. The planes would take lazy circuitous routes across the country. Hidden inside the planes were the most powerful portable lasers ever developed.

  All US military units were placed on DEFCON IV. A small select group of Air Force, naval, and army units were placed at DEFCON III. A few reporters caught wind of the increased readiness of the military. But a low level Pentagon briefing told ofjoint exercises with NATO, Japan, and the Russians. The news services in those countries received similar reports. The small handful of reporters who were still digging into the increased military readiness were brought to the Pentagon. They were told they could view the war games from units inside the exercise but they would have to move in with the units and maintain a complete communications blackout until after the exercises. Only three reporters accepted. One reporter was sent to White Sands, another to Camp Ripley, and the last to Grand Forks. There they sat in isolation through most of June wishing they had never accepted the Pentagon's invitation to the exercises.

  * * * *

  The 25-centimeter drones faired no better than the 30-millimeter. Commander Zblot complained to Science Specialist Uubee, “What is happening to the drones?"